Saturday, January 12, 2013

On my previous post, I stated that ".NET related tasks represent something like 10% of my working time". A blog reader (and co-worker) asked me how did I know this.

Well, it was January 2011 and I was drowned in work. I had so many tasks to do, so many deliverables and so many milestones to achieve that I was completely unorganized. All my days ended at around 3 a.m. and it always felt like the day wasn't that productive. So, I developed a small stats app to know where exactly was I wasting time. Based on the Windows Processes, the app registered all my movements (How much time was I using Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Visual Studio, SQLServer, MySQL, MSProject, PHP development, PHC, on and on...).

The goal? Efficiency. Based on the statistics gathered, I was able to extract valuable information about my working habits, some of them not so good. How much time do you spend browsing the internet between tasks? And on Windows explorer organizing your hard drive because you were lazy when downloaded something? And searching the hard drive? And toggling between MSProject, Word and SQLServer?

Since then, I've made several improvements to my daily work. The most visible improvement is a basic personal ticketing system (prioritizing tasks is invaluable).